Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Newsom spokesman bats down Congress speculation, Leon Panetta in at the Pentagon, San Francisco cabbies protest but don’t strike, Warriors boot Robert Rowell, plus more inside.

Top of the morning’s news

The National Weather Service issues a heat advisory for the Bay Area through 8 o’clock tonight, with temperatures expected to top 100 in some places. Chronicle

Fueling speculation that it might retry Barry Bonds on three deadlocked counts, federal prosecutors asked a judge to postpone the hearing in the case until Aug. 26. The Bay Citizen

Media

The Gannett chain laid off 700 newspaper workers, or about 2 percent of its workforce. Romenesko

Politics

State Sen. Leland Yee shows up after the Muni board’s vote to give Nathaniel Ford a $384,000 severance and ends up being asked tough questions about why as senator he voted to take $250 million from Muni over a three-year period. The Bay Citizen (plus video)

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom had his press spokesman deny that he is interested in running for Lynn Woolsey’s congressional seat if, as reported, she decides to retire. Chronicle Politics Blog

The Senate unanimously approved Leon Panetta to replace the retiring Robert Gates as secretary of defense. HuffPo

Kate Sears was seated as Marin County Supervisor to fill the seat left vacant by Charles McGlashan’s death. Marin IJ

Other

Alameda’s city council approved a contract with its besieged Fire Department over angry protests from the public demanding that firefighters take pay cuts. Chronicle

Newly released documents show that PG&E employees, and not contractors, installed the compromised San Bruno pipeline that exploded, killing 8 people, as part of a construction job 55 years ago. Mercury News

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s budget for the fiscal year that begins in a little more than a week remains up in the air after the City Council was unable to nail down union concessions that were supposed to help reduce the city’s projected $58 million deficit. Chronicle

Angry cab drivers protested San Francisco taxi regulations in a noisy demonstration in front of City Hall but a threatened strike failed to take hold downtown. Chronicle

The city of Oakland agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a claim from a woman who lost her leg after being hit by a car while walking near the MacArthur BART station. Oakland Tribune

The Warriors gave team president Robert Rowell his walking papers. Oakland Tribune

Less than a week before a University of New Mexico football player was tossed off a US Airways flight at SFO for wearing baggy pants, the airline allowed a man wearing little more than women’s underwear to fly, the airline conceded. Chronicle

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan announced as the new city administrator Deanna Santana, San Jose’s deputy city manager, ending a months-long search. Oakland Tribune

Sacramento police arrested a mother after determining that her baby likely died from burns suffered in a microwave oven. AP

It was nine hits and eight runs for the Twins against Madison Bumgarner after only one out in the first last night in Minnesota, and the Giants lost 9-2. Chronicle